96 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



In the verbal relation, reported by Hakluyt, of "Nicholas Burgoignon. alias 

 Holy," who spent six years "in Florida" prior to 1586, Burgoignon states 

 that " the Spaniards, entring 50. leagues up Saint Helena, found Indians 

 wearing golde rings at their nostrels and eares. They found also Oxen, 

 but lesse than ours."* The St. Helena here mentioned was in the present 

 State of South Carolina, and must have been either the Combahee or the 

 Edisto River, though most probably the latter, the name St. Helena being 

 still retained for the bay at the mouths of these rivers. It hence seems very 

 probable that the locality referred to was the Abbeville district of South 

 Carolina, where buffaloes at that time doubtless existed. 



Governor Oglethorpe, in his '•' New and Accurate Account of the Provinces 

 of South Carolina and Georgia," published in 1733, makes the following 

 single reference to the buffalo: "The wild I leasts are deer, elks, bears, 

 wolves, buffaloes, wild boars, and abundance of hares and rabbits : they 

 have also a catamountain, or small leopard ; but this is not the dangerous 

 species of the East Indies."! 



Francis Moore, writing in 1744, referring to the absence of the buffalo 

 from St. Simon's Island, adds that - there are large herds there upon the 

 Main." t 



Governor (lien, in bis "Description of Carolina," published in 1701. enu- 

 merates "Buffaloes" in his list of the "Wild Beasts, etc., of the Forest." § 

 Drayton, writing in 1802, also enumerates the buffalo as one of the animals 

 formerly existing in South Carolina. He >ays, "The buffalo and cat-a-mount 

 are entirely exterminated on the eastern Bide of our mountains." || 



While the former occurrence of the buffalo in the "upper parts" of the 

 Carolinaa -near the mountains" is a well-established fact of history, its 

 absence at the same time from the low country near the coast seems 

 equally certain. As early as L 562, Jean Ribaull (or Ribaut) landed at Port 

 Royal, ami explored to some distance into the interior^ without meeting 

 with buffaloes, as did also Hilton.'* in 1668, and numerous other travellers 



• Hakloyt, '. . Vol Ill, p, 188. 



t Collection! of the Gcorgi i Historical Society, Vol. I. ]). 61. 



t A ' 



1 Drayton (John), View of Sooth Carolina, p 



" rrattre in Haklurt'a \"> •> ii^r''^. Vol. HI. pp. 867 



•• 1 1 it ton (William), A Relation "f .i Discover] latelj made on the Coael of Florida, ■ t. •., London, 



Coll.] ,. B) 



